Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to anti-icing systems for preventing ice accumulation in aircrafts.
Description of the Related Art
Anti-icing systems preventing the accumulation of ice are essential for safe operation of aircrafts. Without an anti-icing system and under icing weather conditions, critical components such as wings, slats, engine inlets, engine struts, radar domes, and vertical and horizontal stabilizers, may quickly accumulate quantities of ice. The accumulation of ice may be so severe that the shape and the proper function of the critical components are substantially impaired, which ultimately can lead to a complete loss of control and/or insufficient lift required to keep the aircrafts airborne.
Conventional anti-icing systems rely on flowing a working fluid, e.g. heated air from the engine, inside internal volumes of the critical components of the aircraft for deicing. In these conventional anti-icing systems, the flow of hot air is generally distributed by fixed structures, e.g. perforated conduits or piccolo tubes, that impinge the working fluid on internal surfaces of the critical components via a plurality of stagnation points. Such a plurality of stagnation points generates a non-uniform heat distribution on the internal surfaces as well as a non-uniform heat mixing of the working fluid inside the internal volumes.
Such non-uniform heat distribution and mixing may result in a non-uniform heating of the critical components of the aircraft. Consequently, these conventional anti-icing systems may need to either operate for a longer time or use a greater amount of working fluid to effectively protect the critical components from ice accumulation. In other words, these conventional systems may require important energetic resources from the aircraft and may not be able to effectively protect large surfaces against ice accumulation. Further, these conventional anti-icing systems may produce important spatial variations of temperature throughout the surfaces being protected and may impose stress and metal fatigue on these critical components.
Thus, an anti-icing apparatus and system solving the aforementioned of effectiveness and efficiency are desired.